Welcome back! I hope everyone had an enjoyable spring break. I know I did!
This week I'd like to finish the information from the chapter on podcasts and screencasts from the book, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson. Screencasts are very simply, podcasts with video. One tool that is free and easy to use that is described by Richardson as his favorite is Jing. On their Website, click on the link for Free Version and you can read a lot more about the program and how it works. Whenever you are ready, just click the Download link. Jing has a free version for both Mac and Windows operating systems.
While you are downloading the Jing program, you can sign up for their newsletter or watch a tutorial. Once the program is downloaded and running, you will see a "sun" in the upper-right corner of your screen. To use Jing, it's simple - move your mouse over the "sun" and three rays of sunlight will appear. One ray is the Capture tool, one ray is the History tool, and the other ray is the More tool (where you can set your preferences, etc.).
The Capture tool is what you use to make a recording of your screen and your voice (or other audio like background music). Simply click on the ray with the plus sign icon. Using the crosshairs provided, click and drag across the portion of your screen that you want captured, or recorded. Once that is done, click the video icon at the bottom left. The first time you use Jing, you might see a pop-up window asking about your microphone. Make your selection as to what type of microphone you have. Once you continue, you will see a countdown - 3...2...1... - and then you can start recording. Jing will record both your screen and your audio. Beware that Jing does limit the screencast to five minutes. When you are done, simply click the Finish Recording button. Jing will then show you a screen that you can playback. If you like what you've done, click Save. Otherwise, you can click Cancel and start over if you wish. That's all there is to it! Once you have something you believe is useful for others, you can even share your file!
So how can this be used in a classroom? What if you let students record small instructional videos for other students and staff? What if you let students type a short poem and then go through the poem using Jing to capture the "picture" of the poem, along with the student reading it? What if you utilized PowerPoint and pictures of your school and allowed students to record their voice, guiding users through the "tour" of their school? There is no limit to the creativity of how this could be used, both inside and outside the classroom.
Next week I plan to finish the information from the book. I certainly hope you have found something along the way that you could use in your classroom either for your personal use or for your students to use. Using this blog has been a great way to share information from a wonderful book and I've enjoyed it! We'll wrap things up with the book next week and then finish out the school year with some other quick Web sites and some tips and tricks of using technology. Have a great week!
